Big Island / Hilo -- A Grand Old House Comes Back To Life

HILO, Hawaii - She stood hundreds of feet up, gazing down on the town. Precariously perched on the roof about the Victorian turret of what has been known as the Shipman Mansion, Barbara-Ann Blackshear Andersen could see Hilo's false-front stores, covered sidewalks, nickel parking meters - even the street named Shipman.

From what seemed a lifetime ago, she remembered sneaking away from her famous grandparents and scooting up the attic ladder to this very spot to sunbathe in the warm Hilo sun.

A husband, kids, and a quarter century in the mainland U.S. later, she is home again. In fact, Andersen now owns the old family mansion and is restoring it to its full glory, much as it was nearly 100 years ago when the family first moved in, and running it as a B&B.

Andersen can trace her family back to one of Hawaii's missionaries, Rev. Cornelius Shipman, and his wife, Jane.

Their son, and Barbara-Ann's great-grandfather, William H. "Willie" Shipman, became a well-known Big Island rancher and businessman. Through the years, the family would become known for large land holdings in the Big Island's Puna District, and playing host to royalty, society and visiting dignitaries such as Jack London.

One family member is credited with bringing the first orchid plants to the island, which would one day be nicknamed "the Orchid Isle." Another is given credit for saving the "nene" (Hawaiian goose) from extinction. There is a Shipman Anthurium. And a Shipman Street. Today, Barbara-Ann's father, Roy Blackshear, is chairman of the board of W.H. Shipman Ltd.

Through it all, the home on the hill was the center of family life.

Her great-grandmother, the part-Hawaiian Mary Shipman, would tell her husband, W.H. "Wille" Shipman, "Let's go for a drive," knowing the route would take her past the mansion being built up on Ka'iulani Drive.

"Why don't you buy me that house," she had cajoled for two years. "I can't," Shipman would say. "The Wilsons own it."

One day, when Mary asked again, her husband removed his cigar, crinkled his eyes and said, "Yes, dear. It's been ours now for 30 days." He'd bought it for her. That was 1903.

When the family decided to sell the place several years ago, Andersen couldn't imagine being deprived of "the trappings of home."

"My childhood is wrapped up in this house," she says. So, 93 years and two days after her great-grandfather's original purchase of the house for $13,000, the Andersens bought it with plans to return it to its former glory and their personal residence and bed-and-breakfast.

Then came the hard work.

The Victorian lady had disintegrated into a tired old dowager. The the paint was eroding layer by layer. Ornate gingerbread accents had long since sagged. , "Shabby elegance," Andersen said. "But I remembered what it looked like when I was young."

One thing about the house had not changed: its spectacular location high atop Hilo, on an island peninsula dubbed Reed's Island.

Surrounded by waters at the convergence of the Wailuku River and Waikapu ("forbidden waters") Stream, the sound of rushing water, especially after a hard rain, was the familiar evening lullaby that would put Andersen to sleep as a child.

Work on restoring the 9,000-square-foot house, on 5 1/2 acres,began in April 1996 and was finished last spring.

The house doesn't seem so much improved as restored.

"Time is marching back 30 years," Andersen says. ----------------------------------------------------------------- IF YOU GO

The Shipman House Bed and Breakfast is at 131 Ka'iulani St., Hilo, Big Island, Hawaii. Phone: 808-934-8002.

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